How do I defuse a bottle of fermenting juice? (It's lodged in my bookshelf!)?

Question

The gasses from the fermenting juice in the bottom of a plastic 24-oz bottle have caused the bottle to expand to the point that it is wedged between two shelves of my bookshelf. The pressure is actually causing the lower bookshelf to bend noticeably.

Since the bottle is wedged in the bookshelf, I can't move it anywhere without releasing some pressure. What do I do? I can't wait until it explodes. I can't puncture it... or can I? I had an idea that maybe I can place dry ice around it to make the gasses contract. Would that work?

Please help!!! I am literally stuck!

Answer 1

Hello,

Evacuating everything around it is wise as it could get pretty gross.   If things do go blooey,  have some sodium bicarbonate around to neutrallize the acid.

I like your dry ice idea.   That actually might work.   The key thing is to put the dry ice around the air space at the top as the liquid at the bottom won't collapse much.   However,  the air space might collapse significantly.   If you do that,  be ready to move quickly.

If that doesn't work,  you will probably need to puncture the bottle.   Surround the bottle with sodium bicarbonate,  put a heavy towel around the bottle and puncture it with an ice pick through the towel probably a few times.   The sodium bicarbonate will fizz but will neutralize the acid created inside the bottle.   It will be pretty vile but should be able to be cleaned up.   Be sure that any place that liquid might run is covered.

The good news is that even if it does explode,  it won't do much damage other than throw around some liquid.   The bottle isn't massive enough to do much damage.   However,  I would wear safety glasses at all times that you are around it and probably would wear gloves and heavy clothes.   There could be some pieces of plastic flying.   Safety glasses are particularly important as things could fly right at your eyes.

Write down what happens.

Answer 2

put on safety glasses and hide behind a blanket while you poke a hole in the thin part of the bottle.  that type of plastic is not likely to burst if punctured with a sharp object.  skip the bicarb as it's just fermenting, not hazardous

Answer 3

you want to let the gas out but do it slowly

are you able to twist the cap some?

i would twist the cap of little by little